Robot Winter Begins

Here we go.  At the end of a week that has seen snow, sub zero temps and all sorts of pessimistic Covid news we launch the 2022 FIRST Robotics build season.  Tomorrow we'll get the team together, watch the big reveal video, and like thousands of other teams around the planet finally know exactly what sort of devilishly complicated machine we will have to build in the weeks ahead.  And not very many weeks.  The team opted to go for the earliest possible competition date, so realistically we have five weeks to make it all happen then one week to fine tune.  The reasons for their majestic and hopefully not foolish confidence are I suspect varied.  There is a case to be made for getting this "done and dusted" in time to enjoy a nice spring of goofing around in decent weather.  The team chemistry seems good, and they think they can actually pull it off.  Everyone else attending this tournament will have the same logistical challenges, and as a team that has generally had their act together we'll be relatively stronger than had we waited another month and seen what can be done on a schedule not actually set by lunatics.

And of course some of the kids have known me for 6 or 7 years.  They have come to enjoy seeing me suffer.

Well I'm an old hand by now.  This is just taking the organizing challenge of Machines Behaving Badly over the past 20 years and dialing it up to 11.  I enjoy this stuff.

In theory we have about 30 build sessions.  We will lose some to bad weather.  People will get sick with run of the mill winter crud and other stuff that involves quarantine.  A few will have to take a little time out of the schedule to keep their grades up.  That's all baked into the master plan.  

Of course there is also the disaster scenario.  What If in the critical early phase of build season we had to go virtual for a week or two?  This is happening in various locations including per yesterday's news, Chicago.  Hmmm....I guess I reactivate my Zoom account, we hold long virtual design sessions, I shuttle various parts off to individual households so that gearboxes, intake mechanisms, wiring can be worked on by bored kids......

Hey, that actually sounds like fun!

SLAP!!!!

Thanks.  I needed that.

Not everyone finds robotics posts interesting.  Apologies in advance, I expect it to be about 2/3 of my material over the next couple of months.  It's just that I won't have time for much else.  

Standing on the brink of madness and grinning widely.

T